Q's Regret
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: After seeing the assimilation of Jean-Luc Picard, Q steps in to save the Enterprise.


I don't own Star Trek, in any continuity. I hope Patrick Stewart's return as Jean-Luc Picard goes well. He's a great actor, and I was overjoyed when I heard of his return, along with Brent, Jonathan, and Marina, and Jeri Ryan. Long live true Star Trek.

A/N - A short story was written about Q saving the Enterprise from the Borg, I'm just writing one of my own.

* * *

Q's Regret.

The Q Continuum. A plane of reality far separated from the planes of reality, far outside the known domains of subspace, hyperspace, and time, and the Time Vortex, known to many of the other races barring those who had come close to reaching the level of the Q. In the Milky Way galaxy, the only beings who had come close to ascending to the plane of reality the Q resided were the beings who resided in the wormhole near Bajor (many of the Q disdained the Cardassian Occupation although it was well in their power to just vanish the Cardassians away, but they didn't care enough about it, knowing that as the timelines unfolded, the Bajoran Resistance which made the whole thing so interesting to the Q because they knew the xenophobic if lesser species occupying that planet would eventually leave), who lived outside of ordinary time and space, and had access to so many other realities and planes of existence that many races such as humanity just did not understand at their current level.

There were other races of course, and while they were more advanced by the standards of many of the species in the galaxy, especially the races who made up the United Federation of Planets because of their evolutionary status, to the Q many of them were just beneath them in terms of power.

It was the same outside the Mutters Spiral galaxy - for the Q to use the Time Lord term for the Milky Way was hard, especially since the Time Lords had been the first race to develop time travel whereas the Q's original race had found a way to ascend to their current level. The Time Lords were determined to maintain their dominion over time and space, but both races had a mutual agreement to not radically alter history.

The Q, particularly the individuals who had frequently encountered the human race knew that in the future the humans would one day surpass the Q, and for one Q, they needed to be tested.

And then the unthinkable.

He had become attached to them, mortals on a plane of reality that was so limited it was a wonder _anything _had evolved at all. But it was true, he had become attached to the crew of the USS Enterprise. Yes, he had followed through with the Continuum's directive when the Q had determined the humans were moving much faster than they should be, but when he had seen how they had passed the test at Farpoint Station, he had been impressed.

But after so many encounters and tests, he had become so impressed it had led to an attachment. Granted, Q knew they did not see or regard him with the same affection, but that didn't matter. He still watched them, and he was getting impressed with how they handled the numerous events that occurred all around them.

He had watched as they had encountered a temporal rift, and he had seen how a second timeline had tried to push the primary one out in a battle of dominance when the Enterprise C had popped forwards through time, and changed history so the peace talks between the Federation and the Klingon Empire broke down because without the sacrifice of the Enterprise C the Klingons would not see the honour in forming an alliance with the Federation and see them as worthy allies instead of powerful enemies.

Q had watched as events had unfolded, impressed with how the more militaristic versions of the crew whom he had interacted with had handled the crisis created by the presence of the Enterprise C and her crew. He had been prepared to intervene, of course, if he had felt the humans were not capable of handling it but they had, and the timeline had been reset to its proper place.

He had observed as they had encountered a xenophobic race who was so intolerant they even slaughtered their own people if they tried to evolve, but the Enterprise crew bore witness to the rise of a new species. He witnessed as Gomtuu, the last of a race of symbiotically joined living spacecraft, was prepared to commit suicide before the Betazoid Tam Elbrum, a telepath who was unable to stop hearing other people's minds affecting his own, became the living ship's only companion.

At the moment he was watching as the Borg invaded Federation space. He wasn't surprised; the Collective would have determined the races on the other side of the galaxy were ripe for assimilation by that point, although they had done some studies already into seeing if the races that made up the Alpha Quadrant were worth their time, so it was only a matter of time before the Collective decided to invade. He was just amazed that it was happening so quickly.

Q was not surprised the Enterprise was sent by Starfleet to deal with the Borg threat. As the only crew to encounter the Collective, and survive, the decision was logical. He had watched and listened as the crew tried to think of ways to combat the Collective's invasion of their space, though he knew it would be hopeless since the Collective had encountered these methods of combat in the past. They had overcome them in the past and they would in the future.

He had also witnessed, annoyingly, the conflict behind Commander Riker's refusal to advance further in his career. Didn't the crew of the Enterprise, or indeed Starfleet, have anything more pressing to worry about than the career of a man who was insignificant at the moment? There were moments like this that Q was tempted to rewrite Riker's life, anything to make it less tedious and boring. Q quickly pushed that aside and watched the conflict with the Borg. Still, he had been impressed when they had come up with a way of using their ships' own deflector dish to destroy the Cube though he was concerned and had felt an ominous foreboding when he had heard of their interest in Picard.

But what Q saw later was unexpected. And horrifying.

And it left him feeling guilty since it was his fault because he had introduced the Federation to the Borg.

Jean-Luc Picard had been assimilated into a Borg, but he had not become a drone. It was not an uncommon procedure for the Collective to assimilate members of a different species in order to serve as a voice piece for the Borg, though it was unusual. Jean-Luc had been chosen to be the Borg's voice.

As Q watched as Jean-Luc defied the Collective he was impressed, though he knew it was futile. He was then assimilated, but what made it worse was how the Collective had made the Borg version of him, known as Locutus of Borg, into an individual; granted he was more of a drone than any of the Queens, but he was still able to think in an individual manner than the typical drone.

Q watched in horror as the new Locutus mocked the Enterprise crew - _You had to hand it to the Borg_, he admitted to himself, _they might claim individuality was a waste of time, but when it came down to it they understood psychological warfare on levels beyond even its best practitioners - _and then he saw that Riker was prepared to fire the new weapon to destroy the Cube. Q could tell how hard it was for the man, he knew that Picard was close to all of his crew, so this was a hard experience for the man.

But horror filled the entity as he realised the Enterprise had channelled all of its considerable energy into the destroying the ship; the crew would have needed to have compensated for the fact the blast would destroy the Enterprise itself, but they had done it. They just hadn't realised the Borg reproduced by forcibly assimilating other individuals into their society, and because Picard had been briefed on the work, the Collective would have managed to work out a defence.

But he also knew something else, the Enterprise was going to be destroyed. Q was prepared to leave the Continuum to stop it. He had already opened the door which had allowed Jean-Luc to be assimilated, he couldn't let the crew be killed because they hadn't foreseen or known about what the Borg would do. As he was prepared to leave the Continuum he was stopped by the same Q who had petitioned the Continuum to take his powers away when he had bothered other races.

"You can't leave, Q," the other entity said.

But Q would not be swayed. "I have too," he began, but the other Q wouldn't listen.

"Q, the Continuum gave you your powers back because you had shown yourself to be willing to sacrifice yourself, but the Continuum will not tolerate it if you interfere in this event," the other Q said, "They are fine with you testing the humans at certain stages, but if you pop over to the Enterprise-."

"I am aware of the risks, Q. I am also aware of what the Continuum has decreed; some events of the Enterprise's journey through the universe must happen uninterrupted, but I have to do something," Q pleaded with his fellow Q. "Jean-Luc deserves better than what's happened to him. He helped me when you had my powers taken away; I know he and his crew despise me for what I have done to them in the past, but he didn't deserve to have everything that made him one of the most infuriating, stubborn humans I have ever met just snatched from him. He can be saved, but for that to happen the crew must survive. How can we see what humans can become if the crew dies, that Earth itself is lost?"

The other Q had been listening to the argument closely. "Alright. I'll cover for you," he said.

Q was taken by surprise. "What?" he asked, stunned.

"You can go, Q," the other entity said, "I'll make sure the rest of the Continuum doesn't see what you are doing, but you've got to go now."

But Q remained where he was in the Continuum. "Why would you do this for me?" he asked.

The other Q sighed. "You are proving to me you have changed, that these humans have changed you. Now, go!" the other entity raised his 'hand' and banished his fellow before he could argue indignantly the humans had not changed him. But it was too late. He had been sent off on his way to save the Enterprise.

* * *

"I just don't get it," Geordi LaForge commented as he leaned across the observation lounge table after they spoke to Admiral Hansen over long-range subspace about their failure to destroy the Borg Cube, his VISOR switching to all the rest of the senior staff one after another as he spoke about the repairs to the deflector, "we should be little particles of space dust."

Worf nodded. "It was unusual," he agreed shortly.

"Unusual? Worf, it was a miracle we are still alive."

"Do we have any indication of what happened?" Riker asked, hoping the problem would get his mind off of the fact he had just been given a promotion to Captain.

Geordi shook his head. "No," he said shortly, clearly trying to think of a rational scientific explanation but nothing occurred to him.

Data added, "It was unprecedented."

"Hardly unprecedented, Data, " a quiet and familiar voice whispered. Q appeared in the observation lounge. Instantly at the sound of the voice, the senior staff's backs stiffened while some looked like their worst nightmares had come true, but right now they were surprised when they saw that Q didn't look as cocky or as confident as he usually did. In fact, he looked nervous, and he was continually looking around the room as if he could see things they could not.

"Q!" Riker spat with disdain as he studied the entity, but as he looked closer he noticed that Q was looking shiftily around as if he was expecting someone after him.

"Shh, keep it down!" Q whispered desperately, confirming Riker's observation. "They can't know I'm here. If the Continuum finds out I am here….," he trailed off, looking worriedly around to highlight his point.

Riker sighed as the entity confirmed his suspicions that if the rest of the Q found out he was here, not that Riker honestly cared what they would do to him This mess was getting better by the minute with Picard now a Borg, the Enterprise unable to pursue their ship, and the fleet gearing up for a fight without them there to help, but now Q was here just when he was not wanted. "What are you doing here Q?" he asked.

Q stared at him in surprise. "You mean you haven't worked it out yet?" he asked in exasperation.

"You mean…you stopped the ship from being destroyed?" Deanna whispered in surprise as she caught on quick.

"Yes," the entity's voice was quiet.

"But why?" Beverly Crusher asked, her voice dripping with her usual contempt for the entity, although this time she was nonetheless curious about his motives.

Elizabeth Shelby was just as surprised by the appearance of the Q entity, but she decided to keep silent seeing as she had no idea how the entity would take her presence in this room though she was curious about what he planned to say to them.

Q wondered how he could reply to that question. He knew he could bluff and be as facetious or as obnoxious as he could be, but he decided it was not worth it. "You are needed to stop the Borg," he said simply, deciding instead giving his reasons would just be lost on these humans (and one Klingon), and then he vanished.

But he didn't leave without giving Data a clue to how he could save his captain. He knew the android was intelligent, for a primitive android created by a race who was a long way from really mastering artificial intelligence, but Data was smart and capable of reasoning things out.


End file.
